Has the Doha Paragraph 6 system reached its limits?

• This article takes a departure from the existing narrative in the literature, justifying the failure of the ‘Doha Paragraph 6 system’ (the System).

• The Doha Paragraph 6 solution facilitates the exportation of generic versions of patented drugs to low-income countries with insufficient manufacturing capacity.

• While the System indeed seems to have proven disappointing in practice: having only been used once by Rwanda, this article argues that the misconception about the System is rather speculative.

• With the persistent increase in the number of high-priced patented drugs on the World Health Organization’s model list of essential medicines, the use of the System has become very urgent.